Annual trip to Vegas for work always comes with the culinary adventure in fine dining. Which is mainly what this post will be about!
This year I got to stay at the Delano, which is much nicer than Mandalay where I stayed last year. It’s a little quieter, no smoking and because there is no casino, it smells nice! I was up on the 33rd floor in a nice suite (they are all suites btw) that had a nice view as you can see in the pic below!
When you are going to be in Vegas for a long week, you have to start off the week right, and what better than meeting up with your coworker friends for some drinks and sushi. This year we went back to our usual favorite Sushi Samba they’ve changed their menu quite a bit since we were there in 2014, they seem to have less raw fish rolls than other times, but it’s good that they let you personalize…
We started out with the Otsumami appetizer which came with edamame, shishito peppers and fried green beans with a to die for sauce. This is a perfect appetizer to share for about 4 people while they bring out your food.
One of the managers also brought us a Peruvian grilled scallop as you can see in the pic to the left, to welcome us back for dining with them, it was quite tasty, although I prefer my scallops raw!
We then ordered some rolls and Sashimi.
Sashimi: Tuna, Salmon, Snapper, Hamachi and scallops, excellent!
Rolls: Rainbow, Sao Paulo, Samba Strip, spicy hamachi.
The Sao Paulo roll was excellent along with the Rainbow, so of course we ordered a second round! Along with some extra Salmon, Snapper, Hamachi and scallop Sashimi. It was all delicious coupled with my cucumber drink, but with their change in menu, it might be that next year we need to explore a new spot that has more raw fish options, because in my opinion that’s really the only kind of sushi that I want 😉
Saturday I woke up, worked a little and set up an appointment for a pedicure at the Bathhouse spa right in the Delano. The spa is practically empty when you go before 2pm which is perfect. After 2pm all the girls that have been partying all night on Friday show up and that’s when you know it’s time to run! The spa is minimalistic, dark and secluded, but it’s nice to escape for a bit. The Pedicure was very nice, expensive for what it is, but it was much needed for me and it was nice to enjoy the facilities which included hot tub, steam room, snack, relaxation room, etc. You can enjoy the facilities all day with your service at no charge, or you can pay $30 to enjoy the facilities with no service needed.
After being all relaxed in the morning, we went off to the MGM to get our badges for the conference, the Austin team in the above pic. We attended some sessions at Sales school, mingled with my sales team and then in the late afternoon we went to Caesar’s to shop around to buy some shoes before going to dinner with my team at the House of Blues. Overall it was a busy but nice day.
Sunday is business partner day at the conference, very busy for those of my coworkers who work in channel marketing. My favorite part of Sunday is brunch at Border Grill in Mandalay Bay with the team. It’s conveniently located right outside of the Convention Center, has a nice patio and their brunch is amazing! All you can eat small plates. Everything is delicious. Some of my favorites: Steak and Egg, Shrimp and grits, brisket sliders, tomatillo eggs benedict. All delicious with mimosas or bloody mary’s while working through the strategy and workflow for the week is a great way to become organized.
The other favorite of Sunday is our Welcome kickoff client dinner at Stripsteak, also conveniently right near the convention center.
We started off with happy hr cocktails at the bar, where again the cucumber drink is my favorite.
We worked with the venue to provide a really nice set menu with enough options for everyone to chose from… but really what you want to eat is the Steak with delicious red wine.
You could choose your salad, the one pictured was the BLT. The bacon was soooo good on that one!
Below is the delicious filet which melted in your mouth, the sides were also very good, mac and cheese with truffle oil, broccoli rab, sauteed spinach in multiple variations of mashed potatoes. Perfect Sunday dinner if you ask me!
Monday is the busiest of days at the conference, so much walking around, so many sessions, client meetings, Expo center, etc. one does build up an appetite! Monday is another outing client dinner, this time at Aria at Julian Serrano’s for some Tapas, Sangria and Paella. I’m as usual excited to have a taste from home while in Vegas and so happy that this year I don’t have a 6am meeting, so I’m allowed to stay out a little longer and also enjoy the sangria appropriately! Pics below!
After all that food we went back to Mandalay for a night cap and off to bed for another really long day of conference meetings, sessions and expo center.
Tuesday we had a working lunch with our vendor TechTarget at our usual meeting place the Veranda in the Four Seasons.
My favorite thing on the menu there is their steak sandwich, which I’ve featured before… but considering the steak we had, this time I went with their chicken pesto which was nice grilled chicken.It came with nice potato chips which were nice and crispy, just missing a sauce to dip them in like blue cheese for example.
We shared some fried calamari and a bento tuna appetizer that was delicious. The bento box had tuna prepared in 3 ways, it had tuna tataki, a spicy tuna roll, and seared ahi tuna along with some seaweed salad. That would have been a nice entree had I though of it 😉
At night we went to House of Blues for a business partner reception with Spazmatics concert. That was a lot of fun.
After having so much fun at the concert we went up to the Minus 5 ice bar which was such a fun experience with the faux fur coats, gloves and hats, drinks in our ice cups and lots of pics!
Wednesday we didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary although we had a blast at night at Hakkasan dancing the night away.
Thursday is the last day of the conference, which is a little more relaxing in comparison to the rest of the crazy week. Winding down, closing up… We had taco Thursday lunch which was amazing! Lime chicken, spicy rock shrimp and a steak taco. Not sure which one I liked the best it would be a toss between the steak one and the spicy rock shrimp!
In the evening we all met up to have some bubbly and Thin mints to toast to yet another awesome event. Then we decided to have a girl’s night out and picked Sushi for dinner again!
Start with sushi and end with sushi sounds like a plan!
I don’t believe I’d ever say no to sushi! We decided to venture all the way to the Wynn to try Mizumi. It has a beautiful waterfall view and the sushi was amazing!! Again cucumber drinks to begin with and an assortment of rolls and sashimi.
I enjoyed it more than Sushisamba for a change, so it might be the next place we need to venture to next year for our Friday sushi night before the conference!
With that concludes a whole week of working hard, playing hard and working hard again… Until next time…goodnight Vegas!
ccarretero 